A Decade of Design Excellence

A Decade of Design ExcellenceIIDA assesses the many accomplishments of the past 10 years, while looking forward to the coming decade.

by Lewis J. Goetz, FIIDA, FAIA

This year will mark the 10th anniversary of the International Interior Design Association (IIDA), formed in 1994 as the result of a merger of the Institute of Business Designers (IBD), the International Society of Interior Designers (ISID), and the Council of Federal Interior Designers (CFID). The goal of the merger was to create an international association with a united mission that would represent interior designers worldwide and speak on their behalf with a single voice.

Although a short time by some standards, our past 10 years have been filled with accomplishments. We have established ourselves as leaders in our industry and an important voice—not just for our members, but for the profession as a whole. We have established important forums to discuss critical issues of our profession, such as our Design Congresses which links those issues to the relevance of our clients. Our Large Firm Roundtables provided a forum for practitioners to discuss current trends and operational issues facing our industry, and our Research Summit at the Salk Institute set the groundwork for a profession built on relevant research and studies. Our Industry Advisory Council each year makes the connection between our industry partners and the profession as a whole. Our communication pieces keep our members abreast of the most current information in interior design, and Perspective continues to set a standard for a professional journal providing insightful articles of the past, present and future of our profession. Each year we celebrate design excellence with our international interior design awards showcasing some of the best work in the world. The past 10 years has certainly seen many achievements in design dialogue and professionalism.

Although we now celebrate this solid foundation we have built during the past decade, it is the future that is important—it is the future that holds our vision of our profession and association. We will provide leadership and a voice for the profession. We will provide a place for our community to network, celebrate and share with each other and to build bridges between design professionals, our clients and manufacturers. We will provide, disseminate and assemble the knowledge of our profession, and we will provide value by being an outspoken advocate of our profession, espousing its relevancy and importance in our lives to the public, governing agencies and allied professionals.

As we move into this next decade, we must identify and explore the relevant issues that face us. If we are to be taken seriously we must raise our standards for the profession though education and testing; and we must embrace the concept of knowledge-based design and sustainability in our approach. What we do and what we create is important in our clients' everyday lives—and it makes a difference in our own lives.

All of us should not only celebrate these 10 years of IIDA and its accomplishments, but also how far we as a profession have come and what a great future lies ahead.

At the international level, the anniversary will formally be recognized during NeoCon® 2004. This will be apparent at the IIDA Annual Meeting (on Sunday, June 13, the date of the formal ratification of merger documents in 1994) and at our annual Monday evening gala that will take on an anniversary theme for this year. We will also be holding a celebratory design competition called the "Decade of Design," commemorating this anniversary and acknowledging the top 10 projects of the last decade. In addition, May 2004 will be acknowledged as the official IIDA anniversary month and chapters in every area of the country will be holding programs to recognize the advancements in the industry over the past 10 years.

We look forward to what the future will hold for IIDA, the profession and our members, and we invite you to join us as we set the standards for professional practice for the coming 10 years.

IIDA president Lewis J. Goetz, FIIDA, FAIA, is founding principal and CEO of Group Goetz Architects, Washington, DC. IIDA is headquartered in space 13-122 at the Merchandise Mart, Chicago, IL, and can be reached at (888) 799-IIDA; www.iida.org.